News

** You are viewing the old webpage. Newer version of Piken's Pursuits. **

Recent - 2001 - 2000 - 1999

2000-12-04 (Just pics, no new release)
Since TileView already has all the code in for displaying tilemaps with VRAM gfx, it wouldn't be difficult to add GB and NES support. The GB has unusual tilemaps because it uses signed numbers -128 - 127. Adding NES tilemap support only requires adding a new table for the byte arrangement. Unfortunately, unless you know exactly where the tilemap and gfx of each savestate start (out of the countless emulators out there and countless version variations), you only see gfx junk. For the two pictures below, I had to manually find the gfx bases with SpriteView.
Zelda (NES) Link's Awakening - Mysterious Forest

2000-11-19 Just a thought (old one actually) on BgMapper... One thing that has always annoyed me is loading a savestate from a game that changes the screen midframe, loading the savestate, and seeing nothing but VRAM static on most of the screen. Well, I would not be able to do anything about games that use horizontal interrupts for effects (without becoming a mini-emulator!) but maybe it would not be too difficult to simulate the HDMA transfers. Then you could see the screen as it was meant to look and simply click on the line at which the screen was how you wanted it.

2000-10-30 For anyone curious what Piken looks like, take a look at the About page.
I've haven't been working on my utilities that much because I have had other programming interests and more than usual coursework. Here are design layouts from one of my very slow-going projects, a better GUI...
Spc2Midi
SpriteView
TileView
TileView - Tileset Association
Spc2Midi - Sample List
TileView - File Position
Cascading Menu

2000-08-22 Another webpage style experiment. Hope it's not too purple for you ;) (Netscape really hates my page, so I'd suggest viewing it with IE)

2000-08-10 TileView .185 - minor
Added colored backgrounds behind numbers in hexview. It should make correlating what you see in the block mode to the what you see in hex view much easier.
Fairy Fountain in Zelda
Spc2Midi .105 - no update
Oops, case of mixed up OS's. I used a backslash instead of the internet proper forward slash.

2000-08-03 I wish Windows 95 had a file opener this intuitive. Just a design snapshot, not an actual program screenshot!

2000-07-30 Found out by surprise that my free space went from 7mb to 46mb! Guess I'll have to fill it all with something :) Just finished texturing this site.
ChronoTrigger Battle - another MIDI export
TileView .184 - nothing really

Changed the scrolling keys to less awkward. Won't add mouse support until the new GUI is finished.

VRAM is now automatically loaded from a savestate.

2000-07-10 After a year and a half, I'm experimenting with different styles. If I had known about stylesheets back then, this little site would be a snap to change. Of course, it's so small, it IS a snap to change anyway ;)

2000-07-10 Spc2Midi .105
Very minor changes (still no MIDI exporting or GUI :| )

Redid palette colors to make each channel more easily distinguishable (I was always getting channels that were close in color mixed up) and so that color gradients would be possible.
Added slight color decay gradient at the beginning of each note to mark where each note actually started when some notes started immediately after the one before just ended.
Added little colored "LEDS" to indicate which channels are active.
For fun, added cheap hack to change the instrument sound by pressing the up/down keys. I did this because the default patch sounds fine on my computer but stinks on the school computers. Sorry, there is no text telling which FM sound is selected.
Snapshot of my future GUI. Note this is just a design snapshot, not an actual program screenshot!
Spc2Midi SpriteView

2000-06-28 UpFront 1.3
Hard to believe it has been a year already since CyberGoth wrote the UpFront front-end for my utilities, but he has written the one year anniversary version for your grabbing.

Added an old document on how SNES graphics are stored.

Updated About page to reflect the four new games I just bought, one of which is Return of the Jedi, completing the Star Wars trilogy for SNES :)

What do you know, the counter says 4000+ people have seen this little corner of the web. It would probably be a bit larger if I updated more frequently ;)

2000-05-12 Totally unrelated to emulation - Scanned in an old drawing of a character I planned to one very distant day include in a video game of mine, to display my artistic talent (or need for improvement:)

2000-04-17 BgMapper .176 - Real update

Large scene snapshots (512x512) and VERY large (1024x1024=1Mb). No more cutting and pasting of 15 separate 320x200 snapshots. This should really help with mode 7 and 64x64 tilemap scenes. 512x512 is just right for many areas in Zelda. 1024x1024 is perfect for Mario Kart. Press '0' for the export menu.

Bg alignment. In games with 'blocky' levels, like Mario World and Metroid 3, the tiles are distinct and easy to align to. In games like DKC and Super Star Wars though, it is much more difficult to tell just where the seams are. Bg alignment automatically aligns the selected bg to the top left of the screen so that you will be on a whole tile, not half of one. It works especially well for small areas (like one or two screen rooms). Press '9' for the menu.

Some games turn off all the bgs at certain times during the frame, which makes it confusing when you start BgMapper and don't see anything, even though you know there should be something there. So if none of the bgs are turned on, it just turns them all on now.
Secret of Mana (SquareSoft)

2000-04-16 Stylesheets are awesome! Too bad they don't fix Netscape's annoyances...
It looks like only IE presents this page the way it is supposed to look (according to W3C standards!). Netscape is doing all kinds of screwy things, like changing my body font anytime after a table, changing the size of the text inside...

2000-04-14 BgMapper .174 - Minor update

Added the much needed sides clipping, all four sides, all four tile flip directions, any tile size. I'm surprised that no one ever mentioned it. Clipping is not too difficult with simple bitmaps, but the complexity quadrupled when those bitmaps could flipped any one of four directions.

For quite a while I've been wanting to add the option of exporting the entire 1024x1024 bitmap. It would make map-making much quicker, especially for mode 7 screens. I got most of it done yesterday, but it isn't ready quite yet. First the scene renderer needed to be rewritten to handle scenes of any size (not just 320x200), and secondly clipping had to be added. Now for a small rewrite to the image exporter...

2000-03-28 Twas a fun vacation. Now it's back to college, email, and updating this page once every month or so :)
Spc2Midi Beta .101 (Readme)
This is just for fun, so don't expect anything more from it than mere amusement. For a glimpse of my small musical project, here is the unrefined, non-gui, harsh on the ears, Spc2Midi beta. Below you can see the musical patterns of the Mario World intro being played. The code also is included for anyone curious.
'Mario World' note patterns

2000-03-10 Hbt & Trg Demo Song - Love this short tune.
ChronoTrigger: Frog's Theme - Let the adventure start
Mario World: Bonus Level - Short but addictive
Any MIDI authors out there feel free to take these mere sequences of notes give them some feeling by adding instruments.

2000-03-03 TileView .181

Brr sample mode (switch to by pressing 6). I couldn't wait until Spc2Midi was finished, and it easy enough to just add it to TileView. For samples, look in either a ROM, savestate, or SPC.

Display modes can be changed by pressing 1-6 (they can also still be cycled through by pressing 'm').
Sound sample from a 'Metroid 3' savestate

2000-03-02 Time is given hour/minute/second, program verions are numbered major/minor/revision, and bible scriptures are spoken book/chapter/verse. The eyes and brain are familiar with major then minor, so why not give dates year/month/day!? Guess it would make too much sense...

2000-03-01
SpcTool - Alpha II productions
If you don't already know about this great SPC player, go try it! SpcTool has excellent sound quality, graphical volume meters, sound samples exporting, MIDI logging... My Spc2Midi is in a state of idleness so this more than fills its place.

2000

PikenSoft

Recent - 2001 - 2000 - 1999
2000-12-04	(Just pics, no new release) Since TileView already has all the code in for displaying tilemaps with VRAM gfx, it wouldn't be difficult to add GB and NES support. The GB has unusual tilemaps because it uses signed numbers -128 - 127. Adding NES tilemap support only requires adding a new table for the byte arrangement. Unfortunately, unless you know exactly where the tilemap and gfx of each savestate start (out of the countless emulators out there and countless version variations), you only see gfx junk. For the two pictures below, I had to manually find the gfx bases with SpriteView.
2000-11-19	Just a thought (old one actually) on BgMapper... One thing that has always annoyed me is loading a savestate from a game that changes the screen midframe, loading the savestate, and seeing nothing but VRAM static on most of the screen. Well, I would not be able to do anything about games that use horizontal interrupts for effects (without becoming a mini-emulator!) but maybe it would not be too difficult to simulate the HDMA transfers. Then you could see the screen as it was meant to look and simply click on the line at which the screen was how you wanted it.
2000-10-30	For anyone curious what Piken looks like, take a look at the About page. I've haven't been working on my utilities that much because I have had other programming interests and more than usual coursework. Here are design layouts from one of my very slow-going projects, a better GUI... Spc2Midi SpriteView TileView TileView - Tileset Association Spc2Midi - Sample List TileView - File Position Cascading Menu
2000-08-22	Another webpage style experiment. Hope it's not too purple for you ;) (Netscape really hates my page, so I'd suggest viewing it with IE)
2000-08-10	TileView .185 - minor Added colored backgrounds behind numbers in hexview. It should make correlating what you see in the block mode to the what you see in hex view much easier. Spc2Midi .105 - no update Oops, case of mixed up OS's. I used a backslash instead of the internet proper forward slash.
2000-08-03	I wish Windows 95 had a file opener this intuitive. Just a design snapshot, not an actual program screenshot!
2000-07-30	Found out by surprise that my free space went from 7mb to 46mb! Guess I'll have to fill it all with something :) Just finished texturing this site. ChronoTrigger Battle - another MIDI export TileView .184 - nothing really Changed the scrolling keys to less awkward. Won't add mouse support until the new GUI is finished. VRAM is now automatically loaded from a savestate.
2000-07-10	After a year and a half, I'm experimenting with different styles. If I had known about stylesheets back then, this little site would be a snap to change. Of course, it's so small, it IS a snap to change anyway ;)
2000-07-10	Spc2Midi .105 Very minor changes (still no MIDI exporting or GUI :\| ) Redid palette colors to make each channel more easily distinguishable (I was always getting channels that were close in color mixed up) and so that color gradients would be possible. Added slight color decay gradient at the beginning of each note to mark where each note actually started when some notes started immediately after the one before just ended. Added little colored "LEDS" to indicate which channels are active. For fun, added cheap hack to change the instrument sound by pressing the up/down keys. I did this because the default patch sounds fine on my computer but stinks on the school computers. Sorry, there is no text telling which FM sound is selected. Snapshot of my future GUI. Note this is just a design snapshot, not an actual program screenshot!
2000-06-28	UpFront 1.3 Hard to believe it has been a year already since CyberGoth wrote the UpFront front-end for my utilities, but he has written the one year anniversary version for your grabbing. Added an old document on how SNES graphics are stored. Updated About page to reflect the four new games I just bought, one of which is Return of the Jedi, completing the Star Wars trilogy for SNES :) What do you know, the counter says 4000+ people have seen this little corner of the web. It would probably be a bit larger if I updated more frequently ;)
2000-05-12	Totally unrelated to emulation - Scanned in an old drawing of a character I planned to one very distant day include in a video game of mine, to display my artistic talent (or need for improvement:)
2000-04-17	BgMapper .176 - Real update Large scene snapshots (512x512) and VERY large (1024x1024=1Mb). No more cutting and pasting of 15 separate 320x200 snapshots. This should really help with mode 7 and 64x64 tilemap scenes. 512x512 is just right for many areas in Zelda. 1024x1024 is perfect for Mario Kart. Press '0' for the export menu. Bg alignment. In games with 'blocky' levels, like Mario World and Metroid 3, the tiles are distinct and easy to align to. In games like DKC and Super Star Wars though, it is much more difficult to tell just where the seams are. Bg alignment automatically aligns the selected bg to the top left of the screen so that you will be on a whole tile, not half of one. It works especially well for small areas (like one or two screen rooms). Press '9' for the menu. Some games turn off all the bgs at certain times during the frame, which makes it confusing when you start BgMapper and don't see anything, even though you know there should be something there. So if none of the bgs are turned on, it just turns them all on now. Secret of Mana (SquareSoft)
2000-04-16	Stylesheets are awesome! Too bad they don't fix Netscape's annoyances... It looks like only IE presents this page the way it is supposed to look (according to W3C standards!). Netscape is doing all kinds of screwy things, like changing my body font anytime after a table, changing the size of the text inside...
2000-04-14	BgMapper .174 - Minor update Added the much needed sides clipping, all four sides, all four tile flip directions, any tile size. I'm surprised that no one ever mentioned it. Clipping is not too difficult with simple bitmaps, but the complexity quadrupled when those bitmaps could flipped any one of four directions. For quite a while I've been wanting to add the option of exporting the entire 1024x1024 bitmap. It would make map-making much quicker, especially for mode 7 screens. I got most of it done yesterday, but it isn't ready quite yet. First the scene renderer needed to be rewritten to handle scenes of any size (not just 320x200), and secondly clipping had to be added. Now for a small rewrite to the image exporter...
2000-03-28	Twas a fun vacation. Now it's back to college, email, and updating this page once every month or so :) Spc2Midi Beta .101 (Readme) This is just for fun, so don't expect anything more from it than mere amusement. For a glimpse of my small musical project, here is the unrefined, non-gui, harsh on the ears, Spc2Midi beta. Below you can see the musical patterns of the Mario World intro being played. The code also is included for anyone curious.
2000-03-10	Hbt & Trg Demo Song - Love this short tune. ChronoTrigger: Frog's Theme - Let the adventure start Mario World: Bonus Level - Short but addictive Any MIDI authors out there feel free to take these mere sequences of notes give them some feeling by adding instruments.
2000-03-03	TileView .181 Brr sample mode (switch to by pressing 6). I couldn't wait until Spc2Midi was finished, and it easy enough to just add it to TileView. For samples, look in either a ROM, savestate, or SPC. Display modes can be changed by pressing 1-6 (they can also still be cycled through by pressing 'm').
2000-03-02	Time is given hour/minute/second, program verions are numbered major/minor/revision, and bible scriptures are spoken book/chapter/verse. The eyes and brain are familiar with major then minor, so why not give dates year/month/day!? Guess it would make too much sense...
2000-03-01	SpcTool - Alpha II productions If you don't already know about this great SPC player, go try it! SpcTool has excellent sound quality, graphical volume meters, sound samples exporting, MIDI logging... My Spc2Midi is in a state of idleness so this more than fills its place.